Book
18 begins with the Lord’s prophet Elisha — God’s replacement for the
prophet Elijah. Elijah with his wake-up Carmel showdown and now Elisha
with his wake-up miracles, showed the power of the true Lord God of
Israel. As we traveled with Elisha on his circuit through the northern
kingdom of Israel, we experienced his wake-up miracles.

Elisha traveled from the small huts of the people to the
palaces of the kings. He knew it was important to teach the people and
call them back to the Lord. Elisha was a tower of strength for
believers who remained loyal to the Lord God.

Most of the priests in Israel had fled with their families to
the southern kingdom of Judah. Elisha and the students from the prophet
seminaries were the teachers who taught the people who were interested,
helping them worship the Lord with sacrifice offerings. Today we are
studying the same stories from God’s letter that Elisha and the
prophets taught from scrolls.

As we traveled with Elisha,
we saw the miracles that were given to encourage the students from the
prophets schools. The students were helping the Lord God give the
Israelites every opportunity to turn back before receiving more
suffering.

On the cover of book 18 we see the Shunammite
woman and her son. Her son, who died, was brought back to life with a
wake-up miracle from Elisha.

Another wake-up miracle was
the healing of Syria’s top general, a military hero. General Naaman was
cured of his leprosy by the powerful Lord God of Israel! This was a
miracle for not only Israel but for the surrounding Gentile nations.
This healing was the huge news that the merchants spread as they
traveled in that part of the world.

We recall the story
of Rahab in Jericho who hid the spies under the stalks of flax on her
roof. She became a winner believer by listening to the stories of the
merchants as they came through Jericho singing the songs of the Levite
priests. King David was her descendant!

God’s plan
continued on with the wake-up miracles. At the end of the book after
the death of Elisha, we read about the surprise miracle of Elisha’s
bones.

These miracles were not only for failing Israel,
but they are lessons for our nation today. Are we studying, storing and
using the messages from these stories in our lives? Are we serving the
all powerful Lord God Creator or are we creating our own idols to
worship?

Of interest to the teachers may be the story of
the dinosaurs at the end of the book. A fun project would be to print
out the pages from the web page and have the kids color them. Enjoy!